How to be Organized in College: Your Guide to Success

There are many ways for how to be organized in college, and all of these pro tips will help you to be successful during your college journey and assist in avoiding burnout.

When you are in college, a lot of your life’s daily activities are going to change. Not only will you possibly be living away from home for the first time, but you will also be spending a lot of your time learning coursework, studying, researching, reading and writing papers. When it comes to managing everything with school, as well as balancing your social life and physical and emotional health, it truly pays to stay organized. Here are a few good tips on how to be organized in college so that you can better manage your time, space and activities.

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Top 8 Ways to Be Organized in College

1. Use a Planner

Because you’ll be running from class to class and scheduling time to hang out with friends, it is very helpful to use a planner or a free tool like Google Calendar. With a tool that can remind you of upcoming events, you can schedule in your tests and deadlines so that you never forget or miss something important.

Additionally, if you attend online university, this means that your schedule is more flexible as there are no set class times. For example, if you go to an institution like University of the People, you get to essentially choose when you go to school. While this places more responsibility on the student to make time for education, it also means you can set up your schedule and map out your calendar how you see fit. Perhaps you focus better in the mornings, which means you can set aside that time for classes and evenings for your free time.

This all goes hand-in-hand with also making sure your class schedule is visible. Either print it out or create your own digital version so that you don’t forget where you have to be at a certain time. It’s a good first step to learn how to organize yourself as a student.

2. Use Color Coding

Color coding your schedule and tasks is a simple and easy-to-read way to know what kind of tasks you have coming up. To exemplify, you can color code your calendar by giving tests, homework, tasks and free time each a different color so that you can simply glance over at the calendar to see what you need to do.

3. Keep Your Desk Clean

Whether you attend online school or a traditional university, you will have a workspace. This could be in your dorm, at a coffee shop, in your living room, or wherever else you may choose for it to be. No matter where you decide to get your work done, you’ll want to keep it clean and clutter-free. Try to keep only the things you need on the desk when you are working, which may mean you’ll have a computer, notebook, pen, and water, for example. By maintaining a clutter-free space, your mind can stay more focused and feel less stressed by all the mess.

4. To-Do Lists

While there are many ways to create a to-do list, a good tip is to organize your tasks in list of priority based on deadlines. Additionally, if there are tasks you can get done quickly, you may want to get them out of the way so that you can immediately shorten your list and feel less overwhelmed.

Another type of to-do list that is very helpful, especially when you are studying, is called a “distraction to-do list.” When you are focused on a task and something irrelevant comes to mind, instead of switching tasks, simply write it down and check it out when you take a study break.

5. Organize Your Computer

Your computer is your digital notebook. It saves time and makes it very helpful in the future when you need to reference back to material if you keep the folders on your computer organized from the get go. Try to start with a basic organization structure. Maybe something like this could work for you: create a folder for the school year, then the semester system, then a folder for each class name. Inside the folder for each class, you can set folders for “essays,” “homework,” “resources,” etc.

Also, be sure to backup your computer consistently with an external hard-drive or use a cloud software like Amazon Cloud Drive or Google Drive. It would be a disaster to lose all your hard-earned work in the blink of an eye, so be sure to take the few minutes of extra time and create your backups!

6. Effective Time Management

When it comes to school, one of the most important tools you can leverage is effective time management. Time management allows you to optimize how and where you spend your minutes to reap the most rewards.

Especially if you are studying online, you will have to manage your own time because you set your school schedule. Some tips for time management include: waking up early, scheduling your to-do list, breaking up big tasks, giving yourself rewards, eliminating distractions, and focusing on one task at a time.

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7. Take Care of Your Health

Your most important asset in life is your health. Your health encompasses your mental, physical and emotional state of wellbeing. It’s easy to feel stressed in college, but by setting aside time for social activities, exercise and relaxation, you can calm the effects.

Be sure that you allow yourself time to de-stress and partake in activities you enjoy doing, which could include: running, yoga, reading, writing, singing, dancing, or creating art. Whatever you enjoy to do, give yourself the time necessary because you’ll need it to recharge and avoid burn-out. At the same time, make sure you receive an adequate amount of sleep, which is recommended to be 7-9 hours, so that your cells can recharge and your brain can absorb the information you spend your days learning.

8. Financial Health

College is undoubtedly expensive. While there are alternatives like attending a tuition-free institution like University of the People, you’ll still want to make sure you are managing your finances so that you can avoid going deeply into debt and spending energy worrying about money. To help do so, outline the costs you need to cover each year for school and your sources of income. Sources of income can include: salaries and tips and financial aid like scholarships, grants, and loans.

If you choose to attend University of the People and take the tuition-free route, you still have the opportunity to attain scholarships to help cover the costs of the course assessment fees.

The Bottom Line

Staying organized in college will help you to be successful. Because there is going to be a lot to balance on your plate, you can create systems that work in your favor to manage your time and tasks effectively.

Of course, you won’t be 100% organized all of the time, but when you practice some of these tips on how to stay organized in college, every bit will count to create good habits and make your college experience more enjoyable.